Mobile Communication and Bottom-Up Movements in Singapore

Author(s):  
Carol Soon ◽  
Cheong Kah Shin

At Hong Lim Park in February 2013, the “No to 6.9 Million Population” protest saw 5,000 Singaporeans expressing their unhappiness with the government's Population White Paper. Touted to be the largest demonstration since Singapore's independence, it bore witness to digital technologies' mobilization effects. Personal and organization websites, discussion forums, blogs, and social media provide viable spaces for individuals and marginalized groups to circumvent offline media regulations and participate in counter-hegemonic discourse. Surveys indicate that Singaporeans are increasingly leveraging mobile communication for utility purposes—seeking and sharing information—and for networking. This chapter identifies digital bottom-up movements that took place in recent years, the anatomy of these movements, and how digital technologies were used. What is evident is that groups championing different causes are using a wide range of digital platforms to galvanize support and mobilize action for political and social issues. However, the link between that and mobile communication remains unclear. This chapter concludes by presenting recommendations for future studies on mobile communication and bottom-up movements.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Abel ◽  
◽  
Dennis Miether ◽  
Florian Plötzky ◽  
Susanne Robra-Bissantz ◽  
...  

Citizens around the world are changing their urban environment through bottom-up projects. They are increasingly using digital platforms to come together. From the perspective of smart city research, this form of participation and interaction with city administrations has not yet been researched and defined. In our study we suggest a conceptualisation of bottomup urbanism participatory platforms and analysed 143 platforms. We identified 23 platforms as our study sample. They vary in their focus from implementation to funding or discussion. Therefor we found a broad range of participation mechanisms. A wide range of employment or voluntary work of staff members was shown. A heterogeneous picture also emerged regarding other characteristics (e.g. funding size, users or number of projects). One thing they have in common is their good cooperation with cities and regional actors.


Author(s):  
Payam Hanafizadeh ◽  
Sepideh Shafia

As digital technologies advance, the digital world is integrated with the real one through various digital platforms. Digital transformation in organizations is essentially based on emerging technologies and social and digital platforms. The purpose of this study is to help organizations choose the appropriate platforms to interact with customers and participate in the digital world in accordance with the maturity they gain in using these digital technologies. The present research, by synthesizing empirical studies on the use of various social platforms in organizations, provides a conceptual map of the relationship between the platform type and the maturity stage of organizations. According to the findings of this study, general social networks are suitable platforms for organizations with the first-stage maturity characteristics. Various social networks and creativity works sharing sites were recognized as suitable for the second stage; and public blogs and educational materials sharing for the third stage. Microblogs, discussion forums, and business networking sites are also appropriate for organizations with the characteristics of stages four and five. Using the findings of this research, organizations will be able to identify a social platform appropriate to their stage of readiness and maturity and make the most out of its benefits.


Comunicar ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (66) ◽  
pp. 21-31
Author(s):  
Ola Erstad ◽  
Raquel Miño ◽  
Pablo Rivera-Vargas

The current social and educational challenges force us to rethink the role of educational institutions and digital technologies in the 21st century, which requires a deeper understanding of learning activities in schools. In this article we analyze bottom-up initiatives for educational transformation implemented in public lower secondary schools from Norway, Chile and Spain that involved 230 students and 14 teachers. Three ethnographic case studies were carried out, using individual interviews, focus groups, participant observations and document analysis in six schools. The main goal was to deeply understand how bottom-up school initiatives, with a comprehensive use of digital technologies, are contributing to generate connected practices and to involve teachers, learners and communities in the discussion about what kind of society they want in their future. The results of the analysis indicate that fostering a transformative agency in secondary schools has the potential of engaging students in the exploration of contemporary social issues and that digital connectedness can contribute to connect schools with youth life trajectories and communities. This study on transformative agency and digital connectedness reveals a new path for educational transformation that may interest everybody who, in one way or another, are involved in education systems all around the world. Los desafíos sociales y educativos que enfrentamos en la actualidad nos obligan a repensar cuál es el rol de las instituciones educativas y de las tecnologías digitales en el siglo XXI, lo cual requiere una comprensión más profunda de las actividades de aprendizaje de las escuelas. En este artículo analizamos iniciativas para la transformación educativa implementadas en centros de secundaria públicos de Noruega, Chile y España que involucraron a 230 alumnos y 14 profesores. Se llevaron a cabo tres estudios de caso etnográficos a partir de entrevistas, grupos de discusión, observaciones participantes y análisis documental en seis centros. El objetivo principal fue comprender en profundidad cómo estas iniciativas contribuyen a generar prácticas conectadas y a involucrar al profesorado, el estudiantado y las comunidades en la discusión sobre el tipo de sociedad en la que quieren vivir en un futuro. Los resultados del análisis indican que el fomento de una agencia transformadora en los centros de secundaria tiene el potencial de involucrar al alumnado en el estudio de problemáticas sociales contemporáneas y que la conectividad digital puede contribuir a conectar las escuelas con las trayectorias de vida y las comunidades de los jóvenes. Este primer estudio sobre agencia transformadora y conectividad digital desvela una línea de transformación educativa que puede interesar a todos aquellos individuos que, de una forma u otra, están involucrados en los sistemas educativos de todo el mundo.


Author(s):  
A.N. Semin ◽  
◽  
V.V. Drokin ◽  
A.S. Zhuravlev ◽  
◽  
...  

The article discusses the main directions and forms of adaptation of agricultural production experience to integration into digital platforms for the functioning of the agricultural sector. The informational and statistical basis of the study is determined; a circle of modern research centers that deal with the use of digital technologies in the agricultural sector is outlined; the technologies used in the agricultural sector are classified based on the cliometric approach, that demonstrated by analyzing the yield of grain crops in Russia from 1850 to 2019. Digital platforms for the functioning of the agro-industrial complex are highlighted, allowing to implement areas and forms of adaptation of agricultural production experience to integration into them. Concrete recommendations are given on the use of digital technologies in the field of agricultural production from the standpoint of increasing the competitiveness of agro-food products.


2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (6) ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
Antero Garcia ◽  
T. Philip Nichols

Antero Garcia and T. Philip Nichols explore how classrooms and schools must reframe their conceptions of technology from a focus on tools that serve specific purposes to a focus on platforms and their ecologies. In doing so, they argue, educational stakeholders should attend to three different dimensions of how technology is integrated in schools: the social uses of digital technologies, the design decisions that were made about these products, and the material resources that help make them operate. This approach requires educators to ask complicated questions about what technology does in schools and how to teach with and about it.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6348
Author(s):  
Sultan Çetin ◽  
Catherine De Wolf ◽  
Nancy Bocken

Digital technologies are considered to be an essential enabler of the circular economy in various industries. However, to date, very few studies have investigated which digital technologies could enable the circular economy in the built environment. This study specifically focuses on the built environment as one of the largest, most energy- and material-intensive industries globally, and investigates the following question: which digital technologies potentially enable a circular economy in the built environment, and in what ways? The research uses an iterative stepwise method: (1) framework development based on regenerating, narrowing, slowing and closing resource loop principles; (2) expert workshops to understand the usage of digital technologies in a circular built environment; (3) a literature and practice review to further populate the emerging framework with relevant digital technologies; and (4) the final mapping of digital technologies onto the framework. This study develops a novel Circular Digital Built Environment framework. It identifies and maps ten enabling digital technologies to facilitate a circular economy in the built environment. These include: (1) additive/robotic manufacturing, (2) artificial intelligence, (3) big data and analytics, (4) blockchain technology, (5) building information modelling, (6) digital platforms/marketplaces, (7) digital twins, (8) the geographical information system, (9) material passports/databanks, and (10) the internet of things. The framework provides a fruitful starting point for the novel research avenue at the intersection of circular economy, digital technology and the built environment, and gives practitioners inspiration for sustainable innovation in the sector.


Cosmetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Carmen G. Sotelo ◽  
María Blanco ◽  
Patricia Ramos ◽  
José A. Vázquez ◽  
Ricardo I. Perez-Martin

Long life expectancy of populations in the developing world together with some cultural and social issues has driven the need to pay special attention to health and physical appearance. Cosmeceuticals are gaining interest in the cosmetic industry as their uses fulfills a double purpose: the requirements of a cosmetic (clean, perfume, protect, change the appearance of the external parts of the body or keeping them in good condition) with a particular bioactivity function. The cosmetics industry, producing both cosmetics and cosmeceuticals, is currently facing numerous challenges to satisfy different attitudes of consumers (vegetarianism, veganism, cultural or religious concerns, health or safety reasons, eco-friendly process, etc.). A currently growing trend in the market is the interest in products of low environmental impact. Marine origin ingredients are increasingly being incorporated into cosmeceutical preparations because they are able to address several consumer requirements and also due to the wide range of bioactivities they present (antioxidant, whitening, anti-aging, etc.). Many companies claim “Marine” as a distinctive marketing signal; however, only a few indicate whether they use sustainable ingredient sources. Sustainable marine ingredients might be obtained using wild marine biomass through a sustainable extractive fishing activity; by adopting valorization strategies including the use of fish discards and fish by-products; and by sustainably farming and culturing marine organisms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Jayson Parba

Engaging in critical dialogues in language classrooms that draw on critical pedagogical perspectives can be challenging for learners because of gaps in communicative resources in their L1 and L2. Since critically oriented classrooms involve discussing social issues, students are expected to deploy “literate talk” to engage in critiquing society and a wide range of texts. Although recent studies have explored teachers’ and students’ engagement with critical materials and critical dialogues, research that explores language development in critical language teaching remains a concern for language teachers. In this paper, I share my experience of fostering language development, specifically the overt teaching of critical vocabulary to students of (Tagalog-based) Filipino language at a university in Hawai’i. Through a discussion of racist stereotypes targeting Filipinos and the impacts of these discourses on students’ lived experiences, the notion of “critical vocabulary” emerges as an important tool for students to articulate the presence of and to dismantle oppressive structures of power, including everyday discourses supporting the status quo. This paper defines critical vocabulary and advances its theoretical and practical contribution to critical language teaching. It also includes students’ perspectives of their language development and ends with pedagogical implications for heritage/world language teachers around the world.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110055
Author(s):  
Karen Lee ◽  
Derek Wilding

This article applies principles from the Department of Communications’ policy review of telecommunications consumer protection to broadcasting co-regulation. The Consumer Safeguards Review establishes six principles for good regulation, including that rule-making processes should ‘enable a wide range of views to be considered’. It notes that processes for developing telecommunications codes of practice are likely to lead to ‘sub-optimal’ consumer protection measures. The article draws on original empirical research to assess development of commercial television and commercial radio codes of practice, with particular emphasis on public engagement in co-regulation. It finds the broadcasting codes of practice fail to meet the principles adopted by the Department for good co-regulation. It concludes by arguing there is a pressing need for a more holistic review of communications co-regulation, as broadcasting legislation is similar to the telecommunications legislation, and there is a risk that ‘sub-optimal’ practices could be applied in attempts to regulate digital platforms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Borislav Aleksandrov ◽  
◽  
◽  

Nowadays, within just one generation digital technologies have revolutionized visual communication – from the process/the act of creating a “message”, through the communication channels to the “addressees”, to the interaction with the viewer-participant in this ancient civilization process. As an important component of “communicating through images”, strong impetus was given to traditional technologies and media. Meanwhile, multimedia and the Internet emerged and have quickly developed. It can be said that Internet is a factor transforming almost every aspect of modern culture. This report will attempt to present a small part of my observations (as part of the generation that was witness and process participant) for about twenty years, and mostly in the field of graphic design as an important “forming factor” in visual communication. Due to the wide range, and varied forms of graphic design, I‘ll focus on (and only on some aspects of) my creative experience and my observations in: • The transformations in typography and fonts development; • The forms combining text and graphics / photography (book, publication, page etc.); • Some multidisciplinary aspects of the graphic design. Also I will share some conclusions from my observations.


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